On the Afterlife: Do We Need Heaven?

John 14:2 and You shall ask by Nancy Wood

By Rev. Nicole M. Lamarche

October 15th, 2023

As I shared we are doing things slightly differently today and so you will get

to hear from Becky in a minute. We are doing a series here in worship on

questions and so this question has been posed to me regularly. I invite you

now to take some deeper breaths in this unprecedented time we need to

keep breathing, hoping the Spirit offers whatever we need for today.

God, may the words of all of our mouths and the meditations of all our

hearts be acceptable in your sight our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Do you believe in heaven? Is the afterlife essential for those of us who

identify as Jesus followers in 2023? What do we mean when we say that

God has many rooms for us?

What a fun thing to have the space to explore this together! Yay the

afterlife.

A lot of us grew up with the idea that it was like a “cookie” that if you did it

all right, you get the cookie. If you don’t do it right there’s something else

waiting for you.

COMMUNAL REFLECTION: What was handed to you as the view of the

afterlife?

Some scholars wonder and I wonder about this scripture is if it’s an

invitation to see beyond this plain, in other words a place beyond this realm

that might not necessarily be a conscience other realm.

Here’s what Richard Rohr, says about this, “The major point is that Jesus

has not left the human sphere; he is revealing the goal, the fullness, and

the purpose of humanity itself, which is “that we are able to share in the

divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), here. That there is something accessible on

this plain of reality. And he says that “our code word for that is heaven…”

One of the things that I hold is that people tell me all kinds of things

because they know what I do and that I am probably not going to discount

weird stories. And I can’t tell you the amount of stories I have heard where

there is a similar thread of light and peace. So I think of it like what Art tells

us. Energy can never be created or destroyed. It just changes form. IT

doesn’t die. So maybe when we drop the body, there’s something that isn’t

conscience, but I believe there is something…

COMMUNAL REFLECTION: What do we hold now? How does the afterlife

fit into your spiritual framework?

Beloved of God what if Jesus is saying in another way, that wherever you

find yourself, Love is there, there is a place for you? May it be so. Amen.